Published by Mark Smith-HalvorsenThe yen was close to an eight-year high against the euro in foreign exchange trading this morning (May 25th) as forex brokers engaged in currency hedging.A decline in Asian stocks led to a movement out of high-yield currencies and into the yen, while the greenback also climbed in early trading.The euro was within one yen of an eight-year low against the Japanese currency, with statements from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) causing jitters in the market.Forex brokers were nervous that the debt crisis in Europe would soon spread to Spain and other countries after the IMF warned the country to do more to support its banks.Speaking to Bloomberg, Tetsuya Inoue, chief researcher for financial markets at Nomura Research Institute, a unit of Japan's largest brokerage, said: "I'm concerned about what policy makers can do to contain the debt crisis should it spread from Greece to bigger nations like Spain and Italy."For more information on foreign exchange treasury services and risk management, visit our Corporate FX site.